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Bomb disposal experts clear WWII grenade from Serres woman's garden

A team of military bomb disposal experts were dispatched to a home in Serres, northern Greece, on Tuesday to remove an old hand grenade found buried in a vegetable patch.

The device was discovered by a woman in Kato Souli who was clearing her garden on Monday of rocks and weeds in preparation for planting vegetables. She told police officers called to the scene that her hand closed on the grenade, which she initially mistook for a rock or a tortoise. She said that once she saw it was a grenade she put in down gently and ran off to call for help.

Bomb disposal experts removed the grenade, believed to date from World War II, and detonated it at a remote location on the outskirts of the village.

"She was lucky she didn't accidentally dislodge the pin," one of the members of the bomb squad told the state-run Athens-Macedonia News Agency. He added that although the grenade was old, it was still active and highly volatile.

According to local authorities this was the second grenade to be found on the same property.